Pope Stephen VI

Pope Stephen VI (840-1 August 897) was Pope from 896 to 897, succeeding Pope Boniface VI and preceding Pope Romanus.

Biography
Stephanus was born in 840 AD, and he was made Bishop of Anagni by Pope Formosus (r. 891-896). The House of Spoleto, which contested the papacy as a part of the feud between the Papal States and the Holy Roman Empire (Guy III of Spoleto was also the German emperor), decided to overthrow Pope Boniface VI in 896 and make Stephen the new pope. In January 897 Stephen exhumed the corpse of Formosus and tried it in the Cadaver Synod, accusing Formosus of becoming pope illegally. Stephen had the corpse decapitated and its three blessing fingers cut off, and he buried it in the garb of a layman; he later exhumed it and threw it into the Tiber River. The scandal led to unrest, and on 1 August 897 Stephen was strangled to death.